


Seeking Sugar

by Mix Stitch (Synph)



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-13
Updated: 2012-09-13
Packaged: 2017-11-14 03:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/510841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dick’s main scholarship is suddenly cut and he’s left with a high tuition bill, Dick turns to his friends for help and comes up with a very unconventional way to make the balance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeking Sugar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Birdbitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdbitch/gifts).



> Written for Jill's Sugar Daddy AU.

A week before his final semester of college starts, Dick gets a letter in his on-campus mailbox that is addressed to Richard Grayson and covered in all sorts of official looking stamps. Dick takes the stairs two at a time until he gets to his room on the fourth floor of the residence hall and can be on relatively safe ground.

He tears the envelope open as his fingers start to shake and when he sees the name of the chief financial aid officer at Gotham University right on the top of the heavy sheet of paper, his heart feels like it’s dropping down in the direction of his stomach.

> _Due to budget cuts, the school has decided to cut the gymnastics departments’ scholarship by a significant amount. As you are an employee at the school, you have until the fifth week of school to find an alternative method of payment or your classes will be dropped for you. The amount you owe is--_

At the amount of money for a single semester, Dick’s gaze goes blurry with a sheen of tears that is blinked away quickly. He can’t look at the zeroes in the number without shuddering and thinking about the measly two hundred left in his bank account from his last paycheck. Even working every single shift at the gym for the next  _year_  will not give Dick enough money to make up for the loss of his main scholarship. He could work that job until he forgets what free time is  _and_ sell his comic books online without coming close to the amount he needs.

“What am I going to do?” Dick asks aloud, his voice echoing in the empty entryway of his dorm room. “I can’t afford this.” He stares down at the letter again and then pinches himself just underneath the bend of his left elbow, pressing his fingers together as tight as he can just to make sure that he is awake. Unfortunately, this isn’t just some nightmare dreamed up after a day of listening to his clients pour out their frustrations while they sweat during his classes.

Dick is not dreaming.

He really does owe thousands of dollars to his school and he really doesn’t know how he’s going to get even half of it in time.

\-------------

Looking for a sugar daddy is Kory’s idea.

A fellow trainer at the school gym, Kory Anders is one of Dick’s best friends on campus and the only person that Dick sees on a regular basis aside from Roy and his professors. Dick can’t hide anything from her even if he wanted to try pasting on a fake smile and stiffening his spine as they do their work out for the day.

 “I know a girl who found a man to pay for all four years of college,” Kory says while she jogs on the treadmill next to Dick’s own. “All she had to do is go out with him on dates and make sure she was available for him when he called. She had friends checking in on her and the guy didn’t try anything she didn’t want.” Kory pauses to gulp down a few swigs of water from her bottle and then turns her head so she can look at Dick without breaking her stride. “I should have the web address somewhere… I’ll look in my wallet when we’re done in here.”

Dick sighs and jabs the off button on the treadmill. “I don’t know, Kory,” he hedges, frowning at his friend as she continues jogging. “Are you sure it’d work?” He rubs his hands over his forearms as if to warm himself up and watches the flex of Kory’s muscles underneath the golden skin of her broad back and strong thighs. “What if I wind up only getting creepy old perverts?”

Kory laughs as though the idea is impossible to conceive. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Dick,” Kory says with the confidence that comes from being well over six-feet tall and a star athlete on the volleyball team as well as a burgeoning model. “We’ll get Roy and Donna when they’re not on shift and we’ll make a night of writing ads.”

Dick makes a face. “Really, Kory,” he says, whining a bit before he remembers that he’s almost old enough to drink legally and whining is not the best way to win an argument. “Do you  _want_  Roy to laugh himself to death? Because that’s what’ll happen if you invite him over to-to help me lure in a sugar daddy!” Dick says the last part of that a little too loudly and gets to flinch and cover his face with his hands as the other people in their section of the gym turn to give him strange looks.

“Roy will behave himself,” Kory promises as though she knows all of the secrets in the world (and she probably does). “Donna won’t let him make fun of you for this. Especially not after you explain your situation to them both.”

“But I don’t  _want_  to explain anymore,” Dick says in a soft hissing tone. “Do you know how embarrassed I am already? I have to beg a stranger for money.”

Kory shakes her head and finally turns off her own treadmill. “You’ll be fine, Dick,” she says and Dick feels as though he just  _has_ to believe her from the resolute tone in her voice. “You’ll find someone who’ll help you with college and maybe you’ll even have fun while you’re at it.” Kory fluffs up her heavy red ponytail and beams at Dick. “Besides, when was the last time you did something wild and fun like this?”

“When I was under eighteen,” Dick says with a roll of his eyes. “Somehow, the threat of getting arrested for silly crap kept me from actually doing anything weird.” The ‘like you’ is implied, but Kory laughs anyway and slaps Dick in between his shoulder blades with one big hand.

“It was for a good cause,” she says and yeah, Dick guesses that he can see why protesting and being arrested for it counts as a good cause.

Dick pushes his fingers through his sweaty hair and frowns. “I really need the money,” he says aloud.

Kory nods. “You do.”

\-------------

In the end, Kory does most --if not  _all_ \-- of the work on the text parts of Dick’s profile on the website. SeekingSugar.com is one of the most popular websites for college students and it is one of the few out there that allows people aside from busty blonde women to look for someone to spoil them and take care of them. It also does background checks for additional safety and allows people to talk about which benefactors aren’t worth the effort.

That doesn’t matter to Dick who’s still hopped up on energy and nervous from the thought of what it means to actually sign up for a site like this. All he can think of are the negatives.

_What if this doesn’t work out?_

_What if only perverts respond to my profile?_

_What do I do if one of my professors sees the site?_

Dick takes one long look at the website and gets up from in front of his laptop so he can pace around his small living room. He throws his hands up into the air saying, “I know I need to try this, but have you seen how  _pink_ this website is?”

Kory rolls her eyes and smoothly slips into Dick’s vacated seat in front of his laptop so that she can open a new tab with the create-an-account screen. “And what’s so wrong about the color pink?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at her friend as he picks his way over Roy’s stretched out legs and Donna’s photography equipment. “Anyway, you can change the color of the site display. You just weren’t looking hard enough.”

“I wish I didn’t have to do this,” Dick says and he knows for sure that he’s whining. “Can’t I sell a kidney or something?”

Donna speaks up. “You need your kidneys, Dick,” she says as she reaches for Dick’s hand on his next pass around the room. “And besides, you still wouldn’t get enough money for it.”

Dick blinks at Donna and allows the older woman to pull him down onto the couch beside her. “How do you know that?”

Roy raises his hand before going back to the handheld video game that he’s been playing for the better part of an hour. Contrary to Dick’s fears, Roy has been nothing but supportive to Dick about the whole sugar daddy thing barring a few… bouts of overexcited laughter that were quickly silenced by Donna giving him the evil eye. He has even offered to ask his benefactor to take Dick in (but Dick really cannot imagine taking money from Ollie of all people and so he declines).

Before Dick can open his mouth to ask Roy and Donna exactly  _why_  they know what they know what they know about the hazards of trying to sell organs, Kory clears her throat in a bid for their attention. “I need your measurements,” she says with an undercurrent of amusement in her low voice.

Dick blinks. “My  _what_?”

“Your measurements,” Kory repeats, smiling full out by this point, “You can come over and type them in if you don’t want everyone hearing you.”

Oh. She means  _those_  measurements.

Dick scrambles to his feet and makes his way across the floor as fast as he can without outright running in the small space of his dorm room. He glances over the profile in progress, finding that Kory really does know him better than almost anyone outside of this room, and then zeroes in on the section for measurements. Kory has filled in his height and his weight, but there is still one section left empty and Dick feels his cheeks burn with a blush when he see it.

“Is this really necessary?”

Kory’s laughter is all the answer that Dick needs.

\-------------

Three days later, Dick gets a phone call from Donna at two in the morning. He glances down at the display on his old cell phone and makes a face before hitting the accept button. When he lifts his phone to his ear, he can hear music and laughter for a moment before Donna comes on.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Donna says, voice coming out in a breathless exhalation. “Kory can’t come to the phone right now, but she wanted me to tell you that you got a really good message from a guy right here in Gotham.” The sound of music dies down a bit and Dick can hear the loud clacking sound of high heels on tile. “He wants to meet you in person and--”

“What do you mean?” Dick blurts the question out as all of his weariness vanishes in the blink of an eye. “Did he send me messages? What about my profile? Has Kory been answering messages for me?”

Donna laughs. “She’s only been shooing off the obviously creepy ones,” she says, “But this guy is the real deal. Roy says he hangs out in the same circles as Ollie does.”

“It’s not Lex Luthor is it?” Dick asks, rightfully suspicious as Roy’s mentor and foster father doesn’t always have the best taste in billionaire best friends.

“Of course not,” Donna says. “He doesn’t live in Gotham and besides, he’s married. Why would he--” Donna cuts herself off midsentence. “It’s Bruce Wayne, Dick. Bruce Wayne wants to be your sugar daddy.”

Dick sits up in his bed and moves his phone away from his ear so that he can stare at it. “I’m sorry,” he says softly, “What do you mean  _Bruce Wayne_ wants to--” He can’t even finish the thought. “He’s a billionaire!”

“And he’s apparently very lonely now that his wife has left him,” Donna says, sounding as though she’s reciting something from memory. “You’re going to be having lunch with him on Friday. Kory already swapped shifts with you.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?”

Donna sighs. “You do,” she says softly, “But I thought you’d at least want to  _try_? Roy and I will be there to make sure that everything goes well and all you’ll have to do is give us a signal and we’ll come in to save the day.”

“I don’t know, Donna,” Dick breathes, “Are you sure that it’s really Bruce Wayne?”

“That’s why Roy and I will be there,” she says in response to his question. “Just give this a chance.”

Dick huffs, wanting to complain but knowing that is his only chance to actually get the money that he needs. “I reserve the right to run screaming from the restaurant if it’s not him.”

Donna’s laughter warms Dick inside out. “You’ll be fine,” she insists, “That’s why you do these first few meetings in public places, so your best friends can have your back.” On her end of the phone, the sound of music restarts. “I have to go, but I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye, Donna,” Dick says, but she’s already gone off to whatever party Kory has dragged her too and Dick is left alone with his thoughts in his empty bedroom.

\-------------

It really is Bruce Wayne.

Tall with dark hair and serious blue eyes, the man that stands to greet Dick with a firm handshake and a covert little onceover is the same man that practically owns all of Gotham City. He’s the same man that Dick has seen in magazines and on the news since he was far younger and prone to nursing crushes on every single face he saw in his mother’s magazines.

“You must be Richard,” Bruce says, the corners of his mouth turning up in a very small smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He’s still holding onto Dick’s hand as he speaks and the warmth of his skin is wholly distracting as Dick stands and stares at him with his mouth hanging open just a tad.

Dick speaks, running on instinct and adrenaline. “I-it’s nice to meet you t-too, Mister Wayne,” he says, tripping over the words as he feels his face warm up with a blush. “And you can call me Dick, if you’d like. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting for very long.”

Bruce finally releases of Dick’s hand and gestures for him to take the empty seat across from him at the table. The faint smile is still there and he looks at Dick as though he’s pleased about something. “It’s fine,” Bruce says, “I’ve only been here a few minutes. I didn’t even get a menu yet.”

Something in Dick relaxes at that and he smiles at Bruce. “We can talk until then,” he says decisively. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but why exactly do you want to be a sugar daddy? You could have anyone that you wanted. Why use the internet?”

With a shrug of his broad shoulders, Bruce answers Dick. “Why not use the internet?” He asks a question in response to a question and keeps his gaze focused on Dick’s face. “It’s useful to find someone compatible and then it’s easy enough to arrange a public meet up.”

“B-but you didn’t send me any messages aside from the one about meeting up,” Dick says, having issues figuring out what’s going on. The only thing he can figure is that he’s  _not_  on an episode of one of the many prank shows on television. “How do you know that  _I’m_  someone that you want?”

Bruce’s smile gets wider as he looks at Dick. “I’m a man that’s used to making decisions on short notice,” he says in a low voice that brings a different kind of heat to Dick’s body. “When I see something --or someone-- that I want, I don’t waste any time with it. Besides, you explained your money problems on your profile. Would you really have been fine with me dragging this along over several weeks until your deadline looms behind you?”

Dick shakes his head, mouth opening and closing like a fish. “N-no?”

“Let’s have lunch and then we’ll talk more about what we want from each other,” Bruce says with all of the presence of a man used to getting exactly what he wants, when he wants it. “I promise that I won’t take up too much of your time on our first meeting.”


End file.
